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People of Joy (North OC)
Episode 1111th December 2022 • OC Church of Christ Sermons • OC Church of Christ
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Jesus gives His followers the chance to have divine joy which is more powerful than happiness.

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And now we're gonna have a sermunion from Marcel.

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Aw, let's give it up for the one.

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The only, the Marcel Hall.

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There you go.

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Man, that's funny.

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That's funny.

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I appreciate that.

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I appreciate that.

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Come on now.

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There you go.

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That's why you, okay, I see what you be doing.

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There you go.

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There you go.

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That's awesome.

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I appreciate that.

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I need that when I walk into my house.

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. Well, my kids know I'm home.

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You know what I'm saying?

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. Yeah.

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Pops is here.

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Act right.

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Amen.

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Be respectful to your mama.

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You know what I'm saying?

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Amen.

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Amen.

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Well, uh, it is been a good morning so far, hasn't it?

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Uh, so encouraging to acknowledge those.

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We've been working hard.

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So cool to meet Britney.

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I know if you're like me, you thought she was, uh, she had a little sister,

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sister in her, you know what I'm saying?

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Yeah.

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They're like, oh, you're Indian.

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Oh, okay.

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All right.

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There you go.

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All right.

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So, uh, that makes sense.

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Cause the way she was singing, I thought she had some sister soul in there.

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Well, she's, uh, she's Indian, so I guess, you know, they got some

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sister soul in a different way there.

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grateful to be able to deliver a message from God's word this morning.

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We started the year, um, with this statement, when you, when we truly

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know who we belong to, we will believe God's plans and purposes and will

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become who we were created to be.

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And so we broke up our year into these three parts in which we focused on

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first belonging and, and really walked through many layers and facets of that.

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And we talked about believing.

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And for last trimester here we've been talking about becoming.

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And over the last couple weeks we've been talking about how because of

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Jesus, we can become people of hope.

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And then last week we talked about because of Jesus, we can become people of peace.

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And today we're gonna be talking about how because of Jesus,

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we can become people of joy.

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And so let's go ahead and let's say a word of prayer.

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Father in heaven, God almighty, king of kings, and Lord of lords.

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God, when we are able to think about the words that we're singing, when

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we're able to think about the treasures and the blessings that we have in

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Christ, it does something to our souls.

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Father.

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It ignites something in us.

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It allows us to draw closer to you.

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It allows the in inner turmoil or whatever is going on inside

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to be redirected to your will and God, we want to acknowledge you.

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We want to praise you.

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God, we want to lift your name high and Father, I pray that your word, your holy

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word, the word that that is breathes from you, God, it will transform us today.

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God, it will enlighten us.

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It will engage us.

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It will draw us to greater faith and greater conviction about who

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you are and who we are in Christ.

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And the opportunity to join you in your redemptive work here

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on Earth in the name of Jesus.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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I want to ask you a question.

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What brings you joy?

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What brings you joy?

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Let's get some people to answer what brings you joy?

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Let's get a couple people to answer what brings you joy.

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Yes sir.

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Street tacos.

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Street tacos.

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Amen.

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Street tacos.

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You know, I was having a conversation with a buddy of mine and I appreciate

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your faith right there cuz you know there's some other things on the

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street that I see that are really popular and I refuse to purchase one.

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I I just don't have the faith, Kyle, you know what I'm saying?

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But I appreciate that you get joy from street tacos.

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All right.

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I saw another hand on this side.

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Yes, sir.

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Hugs.

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Hugs.

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Hugs.

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Give.

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Give that man a hug right now.

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Can he get some joy?

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Hey man.

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Elijah, you give him a hug too.

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That's double joy right there.

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There you go.

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All right.

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In the back there waving your hand.

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Yes, she right there.

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Two sons.

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What'd you say?

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Two sons.

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My two sons.

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How old are your two sons?

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Two and six.

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Enjoy it now.

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. Two and six.

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Royal.

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Oh boy.

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Wait till they're 12 and 16.

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I wanna hear that same thing.

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. Come on.

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That's good.

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That's awesome.

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Yes.

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Time with my friend.

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Time with my friend.

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Then she goes over here and touches their friends there.

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Okay.

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Yes.

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Who's that?

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Marty?

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Yes.

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Prayer.

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Prayers being answered with, yes.

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Prayers are always answered, but we love when God says yes.

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All right.

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Okay.

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Doca being here Sunday morning.

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Amen.

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Being here Sunday morning, praising God with all of you.

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Come on.

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Dork was an, a student right there.

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Huh?

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She was like, what does the teacher want to hear?

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Okay.

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Come on.

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There you go.

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Alright.

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Be Corey.

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Go ahead.

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Uh, I'd say can also being here, but the church of, um, coming back the

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second round from the very first time I came, he says music and then also

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bringing, coming back to our church here.

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He used to come a long time ago and now he's been coming back to our church here.

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Come on.

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Amen.

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All right.

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All right, let's go one more.

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Eric.

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Yes.

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Um, quality time with other people.

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Quality time with other people.

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Okay.

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That's good.

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One, one more.

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Bobby.

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Yes, go ahead.

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Bobby.

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His wife.

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That man got into an argument earlier.

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He's trying to make up for it.

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Uh, yes.

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My wife, she gives me great.

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I'm just playing.

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I'm just playing.

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Bobby, so good to see you.

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Please keep praying for Bobby.

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As many of you know, Bobby has a lot of health challenge, but, uh,

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man, it's so good to see Bobby.

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He had a, he had a heart attack, uh, just about a week and a half ago.

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And, uh, so he had a heart attack during the middle of the

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week and was here on Sunday.

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Amen.

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So if you have an excuse, you better go talk to Bobby.

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Oh, my toe hurts, man.

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That man had a heart attack and he was here.

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. I want to hear that.

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All right.

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Come on.

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The wife giving him joy.

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Amen.

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Well, let's go ahead and let's talk about joy.

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And in fact, what I want us to do here is get a biblical sense of joy.

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And so, uh, I know a good friend of mine, Chris Colossi, loves the,

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uh, the, the Bible project videos.

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And so they have this cool Bible project video and I want us to

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go ahead and play that right now.

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Let's go ahead and do that.

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Being in a good mood is really great, and most languages have lots of

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words to describe the experience like happy, cheerful, joyful, and so on.

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The same goes for the languages of the Bible.

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In ancient biblical Hebrew, there's a variety of words like or Gil.

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In the Greek New Testament, there's EU or asis.

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Each word has its own unique nuance, but they all basically refer to

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the feeling of joy and happiness.

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Now, what makes these biblical joy words interesting is noticing the kinds of

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things that bring happiness, and also seeing how joy is a key theme that runs

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through the whole story of the Bible.

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Let's start with sources of joy.

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On page one of the Bible, God says that this world is very good, and so naturally

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people find joy in beautiful and good things of life, like growing flocks

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or in abundant harvest on the hills.

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The poet of Psalm 104 says A good bottle of wine is God's gift

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to bring joy to people's heart.

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People find joy at a wedding or in their children.

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There's even a Hebrew proverb that compares the joy that perfume

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brings to your nose with the joy a good friend brings to your heart.

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However, human history isn't just a joy fest.

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The biblical story shows how we live in a world that's been

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corrupted by our own selfishness.

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It's marked by death and lost, and this is where Biblical faith

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offers a unique perspective on joy.

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It's an attitude God's people adopt, not because of happy

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circumstances, but because of their hope in God's love and promise.

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So when Israelites were suffering from slavery in Egypt, God raised

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up Moses to lead them into freedom.

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And the first thing that Israelites did was sing for joy.

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Even though they were in the middle of a desert, they were vulnerable.

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The promised land was still far away.

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They rejoiced.

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Later, biblical poets looked back on this story and they remembered how

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the Lord caused his people to leave with joy, his chosen ones with shouts

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of joy, this joy in the wilderness.

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This was a defining moment, a way of saying that the joy of God's

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people is not determined by their struggles, but by their future destiny.

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The theme appears later in Israel's story, when Israel suffered under the

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oppression of foreign empires, the prophet Isaiah looked for a day when God would

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raise up a new deliverer like Moses.

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That's when those redeemed by the Lord will return to Zion.

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With glad shouts, with eternal joy crowning their heads, happiness

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and joy will overtake them.

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And while the Israelites waited, they chose joy to anticipate

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their future redemption.

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This is why it's significant that when Jesus of Nazareth was

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born, it was announced as good news that brings great joy.

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We're told that Jesus himself rejoiced and gave thanks to God his father, when

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he began to announce the kingdom of God.

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He even taught his followers the same joy in the wilderness saying, when

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people reject you or persecute you for following me, rejoice, be very glad

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because your reward is great in heaven.

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After his death and resurrection, Jesus commissioned his followers to

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go out and announce the good news that he was the risen king of the world.

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And as they did so, the early Christian communities were

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known for being full of joy.

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Even when they were persecuted, like when the Apostle Paul was sitting in a

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dirty Roman prison, he could say that he's chosen joy even if he gets executed.

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He called this the joy of faith or joy in the Lord.

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He believed it was the gift of God's spirit.

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A sign that Jesus' presence is with you.

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Inspiring hope in the midst of hardship.

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And when you believe that Jesus's love has overcome death

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itself, joy becomes reasonable in the darkest of circumstances.

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Now, this doesn't mean that you ignore or suppress your sorrow.

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That's not healthy or necessary.

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Paul often expressed his grief about missing loved ones or

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losing friends or his own freedom.

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He called it being full of sorrow and yet rejoicing as he acknowledged his pain.

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He also made a choice to trust Jesus that his loss wouldn't be the final word.

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This is very different from the trite advice.

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To turn that frown upside down, Christian joy is a profound decision

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of faith and hope in the power of Jesus' own life and love, and that's

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what biblical joy is all about.

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Amen.

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It's really cool that we can talk about joy in the biblical sense.

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And how we as again, God's people because of Jesus, we can have joy and

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as joy can be sustained can happen even in the midst of trial, even in

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the midst of turmoil, we can have joy.

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Let me ask you this here.

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Have you ever had some joy in God?

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Have you had joy in the Lord?

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Yes.

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I want you to go ahead, let's do this for a quick second.

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If you, if Jesus has ever brought some joy in your life, wait.

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Lot of you said Jesus brought some joy in your life.

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Is that what you just told me?

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Yes.

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Okay.

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We're gonna do something, man.

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I haven't done this since I've been here in Orange County and it's a risk.

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He said, oh, you know what I, after I said that, I said, oh, I don't

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know if I should have said that.

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Can I walk it back?

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Here's what we're gonna do.

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Again, show me some hands here.

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Show me some hands if, if you've ever had some joy because of Jesus.

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Okay?

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Can we have some people share how Jesus brought you some joy?

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Oh, now we got some hands all the way.

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Come down.

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Okay.

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All right, here we go.

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Here's what we're gonna do.

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All right, gene, come on up.

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All right, here we go.

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Alright.

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Right.

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Marty, you can come on up here.

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I saw some hands over here from some young folks, and now y'all getting quiet.

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Savannah, come on up here.

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All right, come on up here.

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All right, here you go.

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We're going to give you, all right, here we go.

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We're going to give you just uh, you have 60 seconds.

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Oh wow.

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That's because if you go longer than 60 seconds, I'm gonna have the guys come up

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here and start playing music again, . And we're gonna treat it like it's an award

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show, , and we're gonna pull you to the side and then the sermon's gonna go long.

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And we know how much everybody loves a long sermon.

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So look, you clap it.

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So here you go.

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We want you to share in 60 seconds or less how Jesus has brought joy to your life.

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Say your name first and then go ahead.

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All right.

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Okay.

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I'm Jean Alexander and I.

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The first thing I thought of was when I became a disciple.

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I was, uh, very unhappy with my life, and I praise.

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I prayed to God, where are you?

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And the next week I was invited out to church and I started citing the Bible and

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one of my best friends still to this day.

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In fact, I found the picture 25 years ago.

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I got baptized and then I thought of my, um, my son's baptism

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and my daughter's baptism.

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And it's amazing . It's so nice to have a family that's all disciples

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and I, it brings me a lot of joy.

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Amen.

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Um, my name's Savannah Carillo and I think the biggest moment was when

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my whole family became disciples.

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We have a lot to participate in the same love and joy that.

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Jesus gave to us.

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So yeah, that was cool.

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Amen.

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Uh, many times I've had, uh, questions.

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I needed answers and prayers needed answered, and sometimes, uh, a sermon will

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come up and give me an answer for what a problem I'm having or read the Bible.

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Uh, also read a devotional.

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And sometimes, uh, brothers and sisters like you will come up

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and give me some exhortation.

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Say, Hey, what about this, this, and that?

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And that's God following up, uh, things I need to have done, spirit.

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And that brings me joy.

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Thank you all.

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Hey, man, give it on up.

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They all were under 60 seconds.

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Where they, Kyle?

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Did you time them?

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Kyle was on them there.

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Amen.

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Man, that's a lot of pressure, huh?

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On the preacher after what you just said.

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There you go.

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I gotta, I gotta say something to meet and need right now.

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Huh?

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There you go.

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Well, here's what we're gonna talk about here.

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We're gonna talk about how Jesus gives us divine joy.

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Jesus gives us divine joy.

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We're gonna take it up in John chapter 15.

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In John chapter 15.

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We're gonna read here and we're taking it up.

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We were in John 14 last week, and so this is called, you know, a lot of scholars

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call this the farewell discourse.

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Jesus just finished his last supper with the, uh, uh, with his

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followers before he's going to get, uh, arrested and then crucified.

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And so he gives this discourse, they're having this conversation,

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and again, he gives some rich theology for us and he answers some

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questions and it starts to make a little bit of sense to the apostles.

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And at the beginning of John chapter 15, he starts off by

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saying that he is the vine and that his followers are the branches.

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And so there's this idea that he keeps saying throughout verses

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one through eight of remain in me.

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And so again, there's this imagery that the branches, in order to be fruitful,

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have to remain in the vine, and so that's the context in which we take it up.

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In verse nine, the Bible reads, it says, as the Father, this is Jesus speaking

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again to his followers, as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.

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Now remain in my love.

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If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love.

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Just as I have kept my father's commands and remain in his love.

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I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

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We'll stop right there.

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It's interesting to note here right at the beginning, just like we talked

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about last week, that this peace, this love, this joy, there's this connection

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between a relationship with God and also our keeping of Jesus' commands.

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Did you see that?

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That's right.

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He says it clearly look, remain in my love.

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He says, keep my commands and you will remain in my love.

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Not that God won't love us, but we won't have this loving relationship

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in which we're designed for if we defiantly, if we intentionally

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go against his will and his word.

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And so we always have to remember that this is a relationship, but we play a

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role in this relationship and part of our role in keeping this loving relationship

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is to keep the commands of Jesus church, or you understand what I'm saying?

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And so we won't spend much time, we talked about it last week and how fitting,

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we talked about the umbrella of peace.

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And boy, oh boy, we need some umbrellas today, don't we?

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We need some umbrellas of peace, but we can see, even hear the umbrella

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of joy when we have the joy of Jesus.

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Now here's what's interesting.

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He says, so that my joy may be in you.

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He didn't say, I just want you to have some joy in your life.

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Yeah, I want my joy to be in you, and then your joy will now become complete.

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Now, Jesus must have been a joyful person in order to say this, because if he wasn't

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joyful and he says, Hey, I want you to have my joy, that would've been a bummer.

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That's like being around the grumpy person, the critical person.

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And he goes, yeah, if you follow me, you could have my joy . That's okay.

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So some of us said that they, Jesus was all serious, or he was

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a man of sorrows, and he was that.

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But obviously he had a lot of joy because this would've brought

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them comforts when he said this.

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So being around Jesus wasn't a joy, kill or kill joy?

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No.

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He obviously exuded and had a lot of joy, says, Hey, this joy that

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I have, I want it to be in you again, not just a type of joy.

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Not just joy, but he wants us to have his joy.

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And so as disciples of Jesus, we get a chance to become a people of joy when

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we're, when we remain in his love.

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You know, there's this really cool verse in Romans 14, the, the Apostle Paul wrote

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this letter to the church in Rome, and he says, here he is talking about a number of

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different things, but this is really cool.

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He says, for the kingdom of God, it is not a matter of eating and

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drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirits.

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That means true Christianity doesn't result in a stale,

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sad, or lifeless existence, but it results in peace and joy.

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Who doesn't want that?

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But again, as God's people, we get a chance to experience this, but we

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get to become people of joy again.

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But let's talk about this type of joy because we can confuse it with

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maybe what we think is divine joy.

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Because again, he says, or we've stated here, Jesus gives us

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divine joy because it's his joy.

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Jesus is divine.

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So the joy that he gives is what divine joy.

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You guys get what I'm saying here.

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And so this divine joy is different than happiness.

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Divine joy is different than happiness.

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Let's go ahead and let's break this down.

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You see, happiness is a status update, but joy is a state of being.

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You see, happiness is a status update, and we've all done that, haven't we?

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All of us on social media there, we, we go over here and let's put our feeling in.

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That's what happiness is.

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But divine joy is a state of being.

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You see, happiness is a feeling.

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While joy is an attitude and choice, happy, happiness is a fleeting feeling.

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It's an emotion just like sadness, jealousy, fear, but it's fleeting.

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You might be happy about something, you might be happy about those street tacos.

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You might be happy about that hug.

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You might be happy about whatever it is that we mentioned.

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But what happens, it won't sustain you, will it.

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It doesn't last forever, and you can't be continually happy forever

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by those things that we mentioned.

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But they're awesome, but they bring happiness.

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But what Jesus brings is divine joy.

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Divine joy sustains us when happiness eludes us.

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You see, divine joy makes happiness more than a fleeting feeling.

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You see, happiness is based on happiness, while divine joy

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is based on the eternal one.

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You see a lot of things that we think of when we're thinking of what makes

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us happy are based on circumstances, often what beyond our control.

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Kyle gets that street taco and it doesn't taste too good.

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He doesn't bring divine joy, does it?

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Now?

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He's discouraging.

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I seen Kyle when he doesn't get the food that he likes in.

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It's not a pretty sight

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and so we can see here happiness is based on circumstances that

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we're not even in control of.

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Think of the things that you mentioned that you were thinking of.

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Most of it is outta your control, isn't it?

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My friends, will they be with me?

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Oh, I can initiate, but will they reciprocate?

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A lot of these things, and these aren't bad.

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We're not knocking happiness.

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God, I do believe, wants us to have some happiness, but that's

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not his aim and goal in life.

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It's to form us back into his image, but he provides and brings divine joy.

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You see, divine joy is more stable because it's based on the

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unchanging, unwavering love, power, and sovereignty of the Almighty God.

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It's based on his unmoving, unchanging word that is powerful, that's

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so powerful as life and death.

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You see, divine joy starts with the choice and leads to a long lasting

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state of being, but the problem that you and I can have is when we either

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seek or expect from God to be happy.

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. You guys know what I'm talking about.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Right.

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We seek happiness.

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We seek this feeling, however, it's fleeting or we expect, well, God,

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you're supposed to make me happy.

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And then when we are in the midst of troubles or trials or our relationship,

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we're trying to wrestle it out, we're like, well, this doesn't make sense.

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Well, God didn't promise happiness.

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He wanted to give us divine joy.

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And so many times then after we have this struggle, we have the wrong perspective.

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We can get discouraged.

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I don't know if this Christianity thing really works or it's not fun anymore.

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. I had a, a, a, a a person send me a text message.

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They told me that they wanted to leave God, and, and, and, and,

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and this was several years ago.

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And they said, you know, I've been through some hard times.

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And, uh, and what'd they say?

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I, I, I, I read it the other day.

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And, uh, they said, you know what?

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It's just not bringing me any more joy.

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And it was heartbreaking, really.

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He didn't have divine joy.

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Divine joy had had evacuated.

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He was talking about the happiness that he was expecting wasn't there in his life.

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So therefore, I might as well leave God.

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You see, we get in trouble when we seek or expect happiness, when

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what's available is divine joy.

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You see, if we're not experiencing divine joy, it's probably

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because our perspective is off.

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And or we're not remaining in Christ.

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Our relationship with him is fragile and or we are defiant

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when it comes to his commands.

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Instead of keeping his commands, we defiantly intentionally

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give it the Heisman.

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Oh, there you go.

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Alright.

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Hi, USC Heisman Trophy.

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It just came.

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The spirit flows.

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. If you don't know uscs quarterback won't.

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The Heisman trophy yesterday.

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Hey, I didn't even have that in my notes, Brian.

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It just comes, it just comes.

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The spirit's moving baby.

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The spirit's moving.

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Don't stop him.

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. That does bring me some happiness.

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And you know what?

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Somewhat joy, but it brings me anger at the same time.

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Amen.

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Sorry, I'm getting, I'm getting distracted.

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Here we go.

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. We get joy from what Jesus says and remaining in his love.

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We get joy from his word.

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I appreciate Marty saying, you know what, when God has a message

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for me in my niece, it changes me.

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It gets me focused.

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And it what he said, it brought him joy when he remained in Christ, when

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he started to keep His commandments.

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This divine joy comes from when we obey.

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You know what?

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Oh man, if I just, I'm struggling, but when I do the

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right thing, guess what happens?

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This divine joy starts to take place and you go, this is good.

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Yeah, yeah.

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I'm gonna remain here.

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I'm gonna, I'm gonna continue this divine joy.

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Yes, there's happiness in this, but it can happen.

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Even as we saw from the video in the midst of chaos, they can be heartache

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and pain all around us, but yet there's this weird transcendent, this, this,

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this unexplainable joy that we can have in that moment that can sustain.

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Again, yes.

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We have times of sorrow.

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We have times at which we mourn in grief.

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We saw that on Wednesday.

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There's a time for everything, but joy can happen.

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Divine joy is available for you and me as the people of God.

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Church, are you with me this morning?

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I wanna share a couple more observations about divine joy.

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You know, as followers of Jesus, we have divine joy because we have

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been forgiven of all our sins.

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Look at what it says in Romans chapter eight.

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It says, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ

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Jesus because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set

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you free from the law of sin and death.

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There is no condemnation if you are in Christ Jesus.

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Did you hear what I just said?

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Sir, there's no condemnation if you are in Christ Jesus.

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Have any of you sinned?

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Just once it looked like Sosa's never sinned.

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He looked at me like, mm, I ain't never sinned.

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, you sinned before Sosa course.

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Oh, oh, oh, now it's the course.

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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All right.

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Anybody sin?

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Uh, a lot.

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Some of y'all like, man, I've been sending a whole lot this week.

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You should, you know, ask, ask my spouse.

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, you sin the lot, haven't you?

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If you're like me, you sin.

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Maybe send on the way up here.

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Maybe sin when you got up in here.

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But guess what the scriptures say?

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If you're in Christ Jesus, there's no condemning, no sentencing, no penalty,

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no death, no fear of hell or execution.

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There's no fear.

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I don't have to worry about it.

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Some of us, we get worried, oh no, I don't know if you're in Christ

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Jesus, you are not condemned.

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Amen.

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You have been forgiven, not of 1, 2, 3, but of all sins.

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Amen.

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And that was through Jesus on the cross.

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I don't know about you, but boy, boy, when I think about it, I'm like, hallelujah,

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sir, that I've been forgiven a sin.

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Yes.

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Because boy, oh boy, if I wasn't forgiven a sin, I'd be in some trouble.

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Or you with me church.

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Oh, I'm sorry.

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Maybe you're the type who hasn't sinned.

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Yes, you have.

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You just raised your hand.

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There's no condemnation, no condemning from the God Almighty.

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He says, you are forgiven.

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When that settles in.

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What does that do?

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It produces some joy.

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I'm a free man.

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Even if we have some bad days, there are a couple things that we could do.

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We can say, one, the tomb is still empty.

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Yes, sir.

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And we can say, hallelujah, that there's no condemnation for me.

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I had a, I had a conversation yesterday with a relative of mine who, uh,

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who, who, who's, he was in some hard times and he was calling me and

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he was sharing some things there.

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And, uh, he had been in prison for, for about 14 years.

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And as we're talking, he said, man, you know what?

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But least I'm not in prison anymore.

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We can always say that spiritually, you know, man, there's some

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things going on in my life.

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I've done some, I've made some mistakes, but hallelujah.

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I'm not in spiritual prison anymore.

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I am not condemned church.

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We should always have a reason to say amen in hallelujah.

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Amen.

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There's another reason, another observation that I have as dearly

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loved children of the most high God.

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We have divine joy because of the second coming of Jesus.

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Right?

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First Thessalonians for says, for the Lord himself will come down from

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heaven with the loud command, with the voice of the arch angel, and

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with the trumpet call of God and the dead in Christ will rise first.

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After that we who are still alive and our left will be caught up together with him

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in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

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And so we will be with the Lord forever.

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Therefore, encourage one another with these words.

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He says, Jesus is coming back.

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Not a possibly, not a maybe.

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It's a fact.

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Jesus will come back and you and I, those who are in Christ, Jesus

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will be what The Almighty God.

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Forever the faith will become sights.

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The Lord that you are worshiping in sing it to today.

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You will now have eternal life with him and all of his people.

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Can I get an amen?

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Amen.

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Amen.

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I don't know about you, but I like this world, but boy oh boy, I

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really don't want this to be my end.

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It says Jesus is coming back and he's gonna bring us home with him.

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That's fantastic.

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We have something to look forward to.

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As my friend Steve Stevenson says, he always says, what

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the best is yet to come, sir.

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Why?

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Because it's true.

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No matter what happens, the best is yet to come because one day we'll be in heaven

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with our creator and maker, God Almighty.

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That's awesome.

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We have something to look forward to that the world unfortunately doesn't have.

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Again, we always have hope in Christ.

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We have peace and we have a joy because we know what's ahead and where we're going.

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You know, it's like kids, it's, it's Christmas and what happens?

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Kids get excited about.

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What about presents?

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I had my daughter come up to me the other day and she says, pops, uh,

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what are you getting me for Christmas?

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I looked at her and said, girl, you know nothing.

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You know, I don't give you no gifts.

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Tell me y'all looking like, man, that's a bad parent.

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I was just playing.

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Okay, , we get one gift.

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All right.

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There you go.

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All right.

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And she was excited.

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She was like, what?

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And so there's been packages coming in, right?

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Karina, she's had these packages coming in, and some of these are gifts.

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Some of them, she's sneaking in some shopping stuff, you know?

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I'm like, girl, what you doing ? What's this box?

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This guy?

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No, we ain't got that many gifts to give this year.

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, what is this box?

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Oh, I just got a couple things.

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. Sorry again.

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I'm digressing.

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Forgive me Brian, and forgive me.

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It just comes out.

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And so she's excited.

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She's looking for these gifts, man, I can't wait.

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What it's gonna be like.

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And that's what we have spiritually.

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We have someone to look forward to.

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The Lords coming back.

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The greatest gift of salvation is coming.

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What's it gonna be like, man, I can't wait to see.

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Can we talk with, with the, with the ancients and the faith, what's

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it gonna be like to meet Moses?

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What's it gonna be like to see the Lord?

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To see the angels to sing out and cry.

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It's gonna be amazing.

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They said, man, this Christians said there's gonna be no

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tears and no pain, no sorrow.

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Ooh, I wanna see that day.

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You see, we have something to look forward to because of the second coming to Jesus.

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Right?

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So here's what's really cool.

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It hit me.

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I was like, wow, this is so cool.

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Right?

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And so we, we, we get this joy from the past, right?

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Because of what Jesus did in the past, because he forgave our sins.

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We get this joy from the past.

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Then we think of the second coming, and we have joy for the future.

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So we have this joy from what happened in the past, and then

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we have this joy for the future.

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And then what does that lead to?

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That leads to what?

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Joy in the presence.

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How awesome is that?

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We get to look back and go, wow.

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Hallelujah.

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And then we get to look forward and go, man, I can't wait.

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This is awesome.

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And that leads us to right now having the joy of the Lord, can

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I get a hallelujah for that?

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I don't know about you, but that fires me up.

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It gets me going.

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I'm excited.

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Because why?

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We're grateful.

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God, you've done so much.

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God, I can't wait for the faith to become sight and have eternal life.

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And so it brings us joy again, no matter what the circumstance

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is, it could be spiritually and mostly reigning all around us.

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But because I look back and I look forward, I now have joy

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in the midst of the moments and that joy could be sustained.

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So what should we do in response to this?

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Well, I think it's easy.

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Let's look back and look forward.

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Let's look back and let's look forward because that will help us to remain

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in Christ that will help us to in our relationship with God Almighty.

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And this will help us to make the right choice to keep his commands in the

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moments you see when we're thinking of what we've been forgiving of.

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Man, I don't wanna commit that same sinny mistake anymore.

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When I know what I'm going toward, man, I want to do what's right now.

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And so we have this joy, we remain in the vine and we keep his commands and we have

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this cool cycle that starts to take place.

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So we need to look back and we need to look forward.

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So let's get real practical action steps this week, not, not this month,

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not, hey, maybe brothers and sisters, I want to call you to write this down.

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Take a picture, whatever it is that you do, whatever's your flavor there.

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And I want you to go ahead and join me in this.

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And first off, the first thing is to meditate on the forgiveness of

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sins and second coming of Jesus.

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Just one day this week, one day this week.

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Just go ahead and have some time in which you meditate, you, thank you, reflect upon

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all that you've been forgiven of and all that you will enjoy when Jesus comes back.

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And then secondly, join me in this.

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Let's pray every day, just this week, not asking, pray for the rest

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of your life this, but every day, this week for the church family, us

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right in here to become people of joy by remaining in Jesus Christ.

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We're praying for all of us, not just individuals, but that all of us can truly

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experience and become people of joy.

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So maybe you need to put that in as a, as a, a, a reminder on your phone there,

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or whatever the case is, maybe have a prayer app or whatever you need to do.

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But let's pray for all of us to experience and to become the people

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of joy by remaining in Christ.

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And if you're visiting here with us, whether you're online or you're here today

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and, and you're not sure if you are in Christ, I wanna encourage you today set

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up a time to study the Bible so you can understand what does it mean and how do

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I actually become a person in Christ.

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How do I get this forgiveness of sin?

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And how can I experience this joy that was mentioned today?

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Right now we're gonna take communion.

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This is where we take the emblems representing Jesus', sacrifice

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upon the cross, the juice, and the bread representing this blood and

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this body that was broken for us.

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And as we take this, we can remember the joy and the opportunity that

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we have to become people of joy.

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And that this joy is not happiness.

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This joy is divine joy.

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And that all of this joy, all of this peace, all of this hope comes

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through the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.

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It says in Hebrews nine, verse 28, just as people are destined to die

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once and after that to face judgment.

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So Christ was sacrifice once to take away the sins of many and he will appear

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a second time not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting.

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For him.

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Let's pray.

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Father in heaven, thank you so much for Jesus.

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Got all that we have.

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All of us in the here who are in Christ Jesus, all of us who are in

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the vine got every single blessing we have is because of your son Jesus.

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Thank you for your plan of salvation.

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Thank you that now your spirit dwells within us.

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God, that we can have the hope, that we can have the peace, that we can

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have the joy that comes from you.

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And God, we know that it came at a cost Father, in order for us to have

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all of our sins forgiven and came at the cost of Jesus dying on the cross.

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And God, we are humbled and we are grateful.

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And God, we're so grateful that the hope comes from the resurrection of

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Jesus, him raising from the dead.

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Now that we have hope in two one day, we will raise and be with you.

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And so God, we are so thankful.

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That Jesus chose, that he persevered, that he was sinless

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and that he followed your will.

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God, may we follow his example following your will grateful,

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humbled, and be united with you in the moments before everlasting.

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